What Shape is Bushwick?

MAPPING THE NEIGHBORHOOD’S ECONOMIC, PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL CAPITAL

in collaboration with public artist and psychogeographer Liz Kueneke

PROJECT SUMMARY

A spectrum of local and global economic, cultural and physical flows are shaping the urban fabric of Bushwick, and rapidly shifting the spatial conditions of home, work, and the public sphere.   As the neighborhood’s spatial metabolism processes the recent economic downturn and increasing gentrification, a vibrant network of individuals and institutions from the arts, cultural, small business and non-profit sectors continues to emerge and stitch the neighborhood together.  If we mapped the neighborhood’s spaces of vibrancy, resilience, support and collaboration, what shape would they take?  What invisible relationships, connections, and spatial conditions would be made visible?  And what could we see from the map that would help us build upon our common strengths and lay the foundation for a sustainable future?

“What Shape is Bushwick” is a participatory installation which invites the residents of Bushwick to map their own economic, cultural and physical footprints and cross-sector connectivities.  Participants will choose to respond to one or all of a list of questions by sewing simple symbols into the map, as well as fill out an accompanying survey.  They are also free to embroider along the edges of the map and cloth and alter the borders and shape of the neighborhood.  Through this exercise, the residents of Bushwick will reflect upon their own perceptions, uses and aspirations of the urban fabric, with the end goal of shaping a shared vision for social change.  The project is in collaboration with the public artist and psychogeographer Liz Kueneke, who has implemented community mapping projects in Barcelona, Manhattan and Bangalore that use this technique of participatory embroidery.  The fabric map of Bushwick will thus enter into a global discourse about how neighborhoods around the world are facing similar demographic, economic and cultural shifts associated with gentrification, and also join a greater movement of increasing residents’ opportunities to author their own maps of their neighborhoods.

I will donate 50-100 hours to embroider the map of Bushwick, and will seek the assistance of local artists to construct a portable table for the map.  Liz will be visiting New York City at the end of May, and has offered to spend one day assisting with a public mapping workshop in Bushwick. 

PROJECT GOALS
The project has three main goals: (1) The communication between participants about personal memories and community issues is facilitated by the intimate act of “sharing a table” and commenting together about their shared city. The act of embroidering, which for some is a hobby, and for others a new experience, enhances the conversation; (2) The data collected will be disaggregated and analyzed to shape common policy platform, urban planning recommendations, and public discussions. The patterns and nodes of responses created, can contribute to a wider understanding of the complexity of uses of the city. (3) The result is a map of Bushwick collectively authored by residents that can be continuously embellished and is a fluid, work in progress and is also a material end-product of collaboration that can be displayed at public events and can be rendered digitally and so that participants can view and interact with it virtually.